sometimes too cute is good

I’m not much for cute things, but baby animals can help relieve some stress. If you need a quick dose of cute, check out the daily puppy web site. A new, cute puppy each and every day.  Toooo cute.

mi sueno

It may be because the Homescribe is in her middle-age, but lately I have found myself drawn to music that I never listened to before. I have become a Tony Bennett fan, and am indeed planning a birthday trip to Seattle in September to see him live and in person.

I have also starting listening to Brazilian bossa nova music. I started with A Day in New York, by the Morelenbaum/Sakamoto Trio, and went from there, including much of the original bossa nova artists, such as Jobim and Gilberto.

Along the way, I also became a fan of the Buena Vista Social Club, which leads to my recommendation for Ibrahim Ferrer’s final album, Mi Sueno. This album was a dream of a lifetime for Ferrer, as he always wanted to sing the traditional Cuban love songs, or boleros, in addition to the more up tempo material that the Buena Vista Social Club is known for.

Ferrer died in 2005, at the age of 78, just as he was finishing the album.

Mi Sueno (My Dream) is heartbreakenly beautiful. Yes, the voice is thin and raspy, but it really makes no difference. This is as gorgeous an album of love songs as I’ve heard since Tony Bennett’s Art of Romance.

Available widely, including Amazon and iTunes.

Jamestown, Virginia: the 400th anniversary

Time magazine came this week with the cover story of the 400th anniversary of Jamestowne Virginia.

One of my hobbies is genealogy, and I was rather interested to learn some years ago that I had a Chiles ancestor, Walter Chiles, who was one of the original settlers of Jamestown. He was a merchant, tobacco farmer, and a member of the House of Burgesses.

He was also, as were many of my southern ancestors, a slave owner. And I have had a difficult time in reconciling my interest in my past with the knowledge that my direct ancestors took part in such a reprehensible practice. Of course, they weren’t alone. Slavery built the United States and a great many great Americans were slave owners: Thomas Jefferson, for one.

I do take some solace that a descendant of Walter Chiles, Manoah Chiles, became a Quaker and was a member of the first Society of Friends to speak out publicly against slavery in the mid 1700s.

I do believe that my personal anguish over the role of slavery in my family’s past relates directly to the guilt and anguish of many Americans who also descended from early settlers. I cannot understand today how any one could conceive of owning another human being. Yes, life was different 400 years ago and then many people did not regard African slaves as human. Alas, there are whackos on the fringes that still believe that. Thankfully, as a society, we seem to have become more enlightened.

So, I find this 400th anniversary a bit of a blessing and a curse. I could, if I wanted, join both the Daughters of the Revolution and the Jamestown Society, but those of you who know me personally will certainly understand why I choose not to join such societies. I did have a lesbian primary care physician who was also eligible for the DAR; we used to joke about forming the DDAR: Dyke Daughters of the American Revolution.

I am both proud and ashamed of my heritage. It’s a good thing that I’m one of those people who see many shades of gray in life.

mississippi sissy

I just finished an astonishing book, Mississippi Sissy, by Kevin Sessums. It’s the story of a gay man who grew up in rural Mississippi in the 1960s.

Besides being a gay Southerner myself, I found this memoir quite meaningful as my life and Kevin’s life nearly overlapped in Jackson, Mississippi. He mentions his work at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, where I worked as a designer for several years, though after Kevin had left for New York. I knew personally many of the people he wrote about, including Eudora Welty, one of America’s great writers.

Highly recommended.

car

And now, car.

I haven’t had a car for a year and a half. I had an old junker that lasted me well during the troubles (the years of the tech recession). But it finally died and wasn’t worth what it would cost to fix it.

But it hasn’t been a problem until Job came up. Flexcar has a car parked at my apartment complex, which is almost like owning your own car. I was either working downtown, easily reached by public transportation in 10 minutes or less, or working from my home office, easily reached by foot in 10 seconds or less.

Job, however, is out in the suburbs of Portland. I can get there by public transportation. The am commute isn’t too bad, as it only takes an hour. The pm commute, though, takes an hour and a half. And, online training for east coast customers will start pretty early Pacific Time.

So, I decided I need to buy a car. There is a wonderful high-end used car dealer across the street called LuxeAuto, so I began looking there. I fell in love with a 2001 Saab 9-3 convertible. But, logic got the better of me, so I transferred my lust to a 2001 Audi A4 with a V6 engine. It’s a great car and drives very well.

If I were really sensible, I’d buy a nice Toyota Corolla, but I just want more this time around. The Audi is sweet and has a terrific Bose sound system. No iPod link, though, which would be a necessity. And maybe XM radio. If I am going to commute, I want to commute in style.

I still love the Saab convertible too. Talk about un-sensible. It’s a sweet, sweet car.

Saab or Audi?  Dunno. Either one would make me very happy, though.

 Stay tuned …

job

First, Job. I took a week of vacation a couple of weeks ago, just to hang around the house. On Monday I got a call from a recruiter about a job. I’ve been getting lots of calls from recruiters, but none of the jobs held any interest for me.  This one did.

Over the last few years, I added training to my technical writing skills. When I’ve been training, I’ve enjoyed working with customers, but missed creating content. When  I was a technical writer, I missed the contact with customers.

 The position I was recruited for is a corporate trainer. About half the time, I’ll be training customers. The other half, I’ll be developing new courses and creating web-based training.

In other words, the perfect job. The interviews went well and I’ve received an offer, contingent on my background check. My recruiter tells me that as I’ve never been arrested for anything, there shouldn’t be a problem.

I hope to have some good news in a week or so.

And yes, the Homescribe will still be able to work from home 2 or 3 days a week. I am the Homescribe, after all.

sorry, i’ve been writing

I apologize for not posting recently. I’ve been busy … yes a lame excuse, but it’s the truth.

Work has been steady but busy and that’s fine. Big management shakeup. I miss my old manager, but very much like my new one, so I’m happy, more or less.

The real news is that I’ve started a new mystery novel and the writing is going well. It also means that I don’t have much spare time lately. I’m getting up early to write for a few hours before work and most of the weekend hours for writing as well. I’m pleased with the progress, though it’s definitely a first draft and, as they say, writing is rewriting.

dear readers

I do apologize for my long absence. I have been very busy at work. In addition to my normal technical writing duties, I have taken on two special projects. And, on top of that, YAR (yet another reorg) which has resulted in a new manager, and we all know how hard it can be to train a new manager.

Other than work, all has been well. We’ve had some beautiful Spring preview days here in Portland … no rain, highs near 70. Absolutely glorious.

The cats are doing well, though with the higher temperatures come shedding. They shall know my by my slicker brush.

and more business analyzing

Once again, I’m being asked to be a business analyst. What’s fun is that I’m starting to do some real problem-solving and coordinating between products that work together on the same platform. I’m calling them together, getting consensus, and assigning tasks.

It’s fun, but I think I want a raise. The stress level is a bit higher, you know?

a nifty little tool

Thanks to one of my favorite tech writing e-mail lists, TECHWR-L, I discovered a very nice tool, for Windows only, called Launchy.

Launchy runs in the background and can be easily launched with a simple keystroke combination. Once open, Launchy provides a text entry field that lets you type in the application, file, or folder you want to open.  After a few uses, Launchy knows what you want with just a few letters typed in. For example, I only need to type “ex” to open Internet Explorer.

Why Launchy? Well, I do have an older and slower system, and in my impatience, often wind up trying to click the same desktop icon more than once, thus slowing down my slower system even more. But I really do think Launchy is faster than clicking on a icon on my desktop.

Another very nice aspect of Launchy is that is an Open Source app and open source is something the Homescribe likes very much. And being completely free, the price is excellent.